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Fish Keeping: Stop doing it wrong!
13 years ago
"The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals"
Once again this is going to be a rant-esque bit of writing although it's informational as well.
One of the biggest mistakes newbie Aquarists do when they get into keeping fish is that they get a tank and they don't cycle it. Let me state again. THEY GET A TANK AND THEY DON'T CYCLE IT. One could post a thousand and one facepalm.jpg's and it still wouldn't do justice to just how much derp is involved when you don't cycle a tank. Usually this ends up costing fish sellers money because they have to refund fish due to stupid customers. This costs the customer money because they tend to freak out and by all sorts of quick fixes to try to remedy their mistake. It also means a lot of potentially rare or expensive fish end up dead.
Do us all a favor. If you have a friend, or a friend of a friend, or a family member who wishes to get into fish keeping make sure they research how to properly cycle a tank. Pester them. Pass the information along. Tell them they need to look onto ensuring the focus on getting the biological set up right before they add fish.
Do you know what it must be like for a poor fish stuck in a uncyled tank? It's a bit like if you got thrown into a house and forced to stay there with no where to go and the house looks clean but it smells like urine, dog piss, has mold on the walls, and is so dangerous air wise that it's killing you.
If you want some reading here is a good place to go: http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php
Another thing many newbies often don't realize and often fail at is selecting fish that do well together and making sure they can accomodate the size of the animals they bring home. If you have a 20-50 gallon aquarium you can't expect fish like Bala Sharks, Clown Loaches, Ghost Knife Fish, and other similar animals that need lots of space to thrive into adulthood. Also if you want a lot of pretty community fish you can't really keep them with verocious predators like Bichirs. What ends up happening is a lot of fish end up unwanted, killed, dumped in lakes, dumped on pet stores...etc because people didn't do their research and cannot afford to upgrade to accomodate the size of the fish. Plan ahead, don't be stupid.
One of the biggest mistakes newbie Aquarists do when they get into keeping fish is that they get a tank and they don't cycle it. Let me state again. THEY GET A TANK AND THEY DON'T CYCLE IT. One could post a thousand and one facepalm.jpg's and it still wouldn't do justice to just how much derp is involved when you don't cycle a tank. Usually this ends up costing fish sellers money because they have to refund fish due to stupid customers. This costs the customer money because they tend to freak out and by all sorts of quick fixes to try to remedy their mistake. It also means a lot of potentially rare or expensive fish end up dead.
Do us all a favor. If you have a friend, or a friend of a friend, or a family member who wishes to get into fish keeping make sure they research how to properly cycle a tank. Pester them. Pass the information along. Tell them they need to look onto ensuring the focus on getting the biological set up right before they add fish.
Do you know what it must be like for a poor fish stuck in a uncyled tank? It's a bit like if you got thrown into a house and forced to stay there with no where to go and the house looks clean but it smells like urine, dog piss, has mold on the walls, and is so dangerous air wise that it's killing you.
If you want some reading here is a good place to go: http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php
Another thing many newbies often don't realize and often fail at is selecting fish that do well together and making sure they can accomodate the size of the animals they bring home. If you have a 20-50 gallon aquarium you can't expect fish like Bala Sharks, Clown Loaches, Ghost Knife Fish, and other similar animals that need lots of space to thrive into adulthood. Also if you want a lot of pretty community fish you can't really keep them with verocious predators like Bichirs. What ends up happening is a lot of fish end up unwanted, killed, dumped in lakes, dumped on pet stores...etc because people didn't do their research and cannot afford to upgrade to accomodate the size of the fish. Plan ahead, don't be stupid.
